Pakistan:Categories
This page is for detailed reasons and recommendations about why we have categories and how to make the best use of them, including ways of arranging articles and subcategories in other than strict alphabetical order. Introduction Categories were introduced to Wikipedia in 2004 and have become very useful and popular. They provide an almost automatic system for linking related pages and listing them together. They can show up deficiencies, duplications, and inconsistencies. See Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Categorization. Every category except :Category:Browse (which is the root category) should be a subcategory of at least one category, but will often be suitable for two or more; for example, "Category:Non-profit organisations in Faisalabad" could be in both "Category:Non-profit organisations in Pakistan" and "Category:Organisations based in Faisalabad". Similarly, every article should be in at least one category but will very often be suitable for two or more. Wikipedia can be a very good guide. If elements of any page are sourced from Wikipedia, all of its categories should be copied at the same time. Most of them will be useful here; a fair proportion of them will already be in use here and require no extra work for full linkage. Overlapping subject-matter If two categories have overlapping subject-matter with each having some that's not in the other (eg Category:Languages of Pakistan and Category:English language or Category:Pakistan and Category:Kashmir), they can each include (in the text portion) a link to the other (which can be quickly and neatly effected by using Template:seealso listing one or more related categories), but neither should be a subcategory of the other. Circularity, nonsensical paths, and endless loops can result. With articles, more freedom is allowed: an article can be in a category if a large part of its subject-matter belongs in the category even if some doesn't. For example, "People born in Pakistan" can be in Category:Pakistan even though millions of them have emigrated. How to put a page into a category Simply add near the bottom a link in this form: :[[category:name of parent category]] or you may also use the "add category" button in the bottom horizontal sidebar. Order of listing Category pages show, from top to bottom: #Any text that has been placed in them (the same as for any other wiki page) #Their subcategories, in alphabetical order (except as noted below) #Their articles, in alphabetical order (except as noted below) To change the order from strict alphabetical, add a pipe - | - before the closing brackets then an indication of the substituted expression you want to determine the order. This is particularly useful for "people" articles so that they are listed alphabetically by surname and for "day of the month" articles (so that, for example, "2 May" comes before "10 May"). Example of method: to put Shaukat Aziz into category:Prime Ministers of Pakistan so as to list under "A", put this on his page: :Aziz, Shaukat See Wikipedia 's listing of that category. When an article has the same name as a category (or almost), it should be listed at the top of the category by adding "|*" before the end brackets of the category link. Similarly with a "Pakistan" subcategory of a "world" category, so that it lists before other countries. Sentence case is the standard The Pakistan Wikia is modelled on Wikipedia's naming conventions. Category and article names and headings should use sentence case. See wikipedia:Wikipedia:Categorization#Category_naming. Words such as "History", "Languages", and "Universities" should not be capitalised when naming a category. Word order Category and article names starting with "Pakistani" would be so numerous on this wiki, if we encouraged them, that any listing of them could be unnecessarily hard to read because so many would come under "P" but similar pages would be under the subject name. So please use "..... of Pakistan" or "..... in Pakistan" e.g. "Schools in Pakistan," wherever convenient. (However, start with "Pakistani" if it is part of a formal name.) Value of using Wikipedia's names exactly Apart from avoiding a name starting with "Pakistani" where practicable, it is a good idea for category and article names to match those of Wikipedia as closely as convenient because that leads to considerable time-saving and helps with cross-referencing (for example, in the use of Template:alsoWP and Template:Main). Plural form Category names should be plural if any of the contents can be counted. That is a distinct difference between article and category names. How you can help improve the categorisation #Use the Talk pages to suggest categories that have not yet been used #Browse the "special" pages to find pages that are not in categories (and put them in one or two): * * * Categories Categories Categories *